Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Genies in Setara's Genie

A Bottle
of Djinn

Genies or
djinns are great fun. Robin William’s genie in Aladdin was a hoot.
But when is Robin Williams not a hoot? Okay, don’t tell me about
One-Hour Photo, Insomnia, or Death to Smoochy. Nobody bats a
thousand.

Ahem.
That’s not the subject here. It’s genies.

Let’s not
talk about I Dream of Jeannie. That is clearly a complete and utter
corruption of the wonderful race of magical beings brought to us from
Muslim tradition. So, here’s the skeenie on genies.

From
Wikipedia:

In
Arabic, a genie (also jinn, Djinn, jinni) is a supernatural creature
which occupies a parallel world to that of mankind, and together with
humans and angels makes up the three sentient creations of God
(Allah). Possessing free will, a djinn can be either good or evil.

The
Djinn are mentioned frequently in the Qur’an, and there is a Surah
entitled Al-Jinn. While Christian tradition suggests that Lucifer was
an angel that rebelled against God’s orders, Islam maintains that
Iblis was a Djinn who had been granted special privilege to live
amongst angels prior to his rebellion. Although some scholars have
ruled that it is apostasy to disbelieve in one of God’s creations,
the belief in Jinn has fallen comparably to the belief in angels in
other Abrahamic traditions.

Golly,
that’s not near as much fun as Robin Williams. Still, a
supernatural being that can wreak havoc on humans is right up our
alley, right?

In my book,
“Setara’s Genie,” Basit, the genie, serves Setara. Well,
‘serves’ is a bit of a stretch. He suggests, advises, and pretty
much makes her figure out how to get things done. Every once in a
great while, he will whomp up a little magic if Setara is about to
fall off a cliff or something else dangerous.

Basit
appears in all of Setara’s adventures except one. In that story, an
evil genie has tricked Basit into the bottle that Aladdin put him in
years before. He introduces himself to Setara as Sharif, Apprentice
Djinn Second Class, and claims to be taking over for Basit while he’s
missing. Setara is naturally concerned for Basit. The evil genie
(disguised as a boy djinn) wants to lure her into helping him kill
the Great Vizier ---- screeeech! Calling a halt here. The plot is too
complicated to explain in full.

The short
of it is that Setara and her gang have to rescue Basit from the
bottle. To do that, they have to put the bad genie into another
bottle. Setara, Kairav the water demon, Azizah the cave demon, Sheik
the dog, and Sulawesi the eagle are all needed to put that dang bad
genie back in his bottle and get Basit out.

To learn
what else happens to the gang, you’ll just have to buy a copy of
the book.

Excerpt

Setara slumped to the cave
floor. What, she wondered, could these superstitious tribesmen think
was a mountain demon? Cloistered she may be, but she was well
educated and did not believe in demons. These were old men’s tales
to frighten children. It made no difference, really. Dead was dead,
whether by a demon’s talons or a mountain cat’s fangs.

She smacked her head
against the rock wall and realized she had dozed off. How
stupid of me. I’m waiting here for something to eat me, and I take
a nap! She edged toward the entrance,
kicking herself mentally. Why hadn’t she simply tried to push the
bushes aside and get out?

She found the answer in
the inch-long thorns on the shrubs, tied down so she couldn’t move
them. When she pushed on them with her tied hands, she got a gash for
her effort. Now, the mountain cats would smell blood, and it would be
all over.

She retreated from the
thorns and put her back to the wall. At least she could face the
lions when they came.

A loud crash, followed by
a slither of loose gravel sounded no more than twenty feet from where
she crouched. Setara pressed herself harder into the cave wall,
closed her eyes tight, and clenched her teeth.

Her eyes and mouth popped
open simultaneously at what she heard next.

“Why can’t they
clean up these blasted caves?” a deep voice rumbled.

Suddenly, a torch flared,
and Setara could see the source of the voice. An eight-foot tall
figure loomed in the light. A turbaned head nearly touched the now
visible cave roof. Setara gaped at the man. Or was it a man? While
his features were man-like, the three-inch fangs, sharp talons, and
beastly snout belied his humanity. The being was dressed in the old
style, with ballooning trousers tied at the ankles, and a brocaded
vest which hung open to reveal a broad, hairless chest.

The creature held up the
torch, which Setara could now see was a flame jetting from his
upraised index finger. The monster glanced around until his gaze
rested on Setara.

“Ah, a bargain
made, goods delivered.” The deep voice chuckled, sounding like the
beat of a drum. Huh huh huh. “Good evening, my dear. Please, come
out into the light. Nothing to be afraid of, I assure you.”

Despite his words, she did
not feel reassured. She could only whimper as she continued to try to
melt into the stone wall. This was the demon! How could such a thing
be? Demons and ogres were only legends and fairy tales, yet here one
stood before her. In the flesh, so to speak.

The demon grinned, a most
disconcerting grin, exposing his fangs to their full length. “Come,
come, my little lady, don’t be afraid. I’m not an ogre, you
know.” The beast’s fangs and nose shrank back to a more normal
size.

“You...you’re a
demon,” Setara barely whispered.

“A what? Oh, good
heavens, what kind of nonsense have they been filling your head with?
I most certainly am not a demon. Why, the very idea! Any fool can see
I’m a genie. You know, a djinn.”

“If you’re a
djinn, where is your lamp?” Setara managed to ask.

“Lamp?
Oh, that was just Aladdin’s genie, Shairan. Most of us don’t hang
around in lamps. Old Shairan was tricked into that one. Evil as the
devil, but not too bright, I’m afraid.”